It’s fitting that on June 3, right in the middle of production for our eighth annual BJT Buyers’ Guide, I had the privilege of traveling to Washington, D.C., to watch Gulfstream accept the prestigious Robert J. Collier trophy for its development of the G650 large-cabin, long-range business jet. The U.S. National Aeronautic Association presents the award annually to those who have made “the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency and safety of air or space vehicles.”

I felt particularly high-spirited during a recent lunch with new friends but didn’t realize why until later: this was the first time in ages that I’d been part of a political discussion that remained respectful and thoughtful even though everyone disagreed on almost every hot-button issue. Nobody got emotional, nobody shouted and nobody got attacked.

After I interviewed Honeywell CEO Dave Cote for this issue’s cover story, he showed me around his Morristown, New Jersey office, which is a large, light-filled space crammed floor to ceiling with mementos of his years of travel across the globe.

You’d never call David Diehl “average,” but in many ways he epitomizes the average business jet traveler. Like most readers of this magazine, he regularly utilizes private aviation to maximize family time while simultaneously advancing a high-level career.

David Copperfield has spent his life mastering unbelievable, otherworldly illusions that take people’s breath away, and that combined with international stardom can make you forget that he is, in fact, a human being like the rest of us. For me the most poignant moment in Margie Goldsmith’s interview with the magnificent illusionist comes when he tells her the story about his finger being severed during a botched rope trick. A surgeon reattached it, and it grew back. “That,” he says, “is magic.”

Sir Richard Branson is the only person we’ve put on our cover twice, and I can’t think of a better choice for that distinction. In 2008, when we first featured him, a poll in Britain had just named him No. 2 on a list of people parents would want their children to look up to, second only to “a family member” and ahead of both Jesus Christ and Nelson Mandela.

John McCarthy dreamed about starting Business Jet Traveler long before he began working for our parent company, AIN Publications, in 1984. In fact, the concept originally came to him many years prior when he was the advertising manager for Piper Aircraft.